You may have seen the exterior of the WSU Downtown storefront at 2314 Washington Boulevard in Ogden, but have you been inside? There is much more than meets the eye within its walls. It’s really a place for students of all ages and types.

The WSU Downtown location will reach its 4-year anniversary in November. WSU Downtown Manager Tyler Cahoon said a plan to open a downtown location was in the works as far back as when Mayor Matthew Godfrey was in office. It was talked about and planned a bit, but things picked up speed when current Mayor Mike Caldwell and WSU President Chuck Wight started putting together the college town initiative.

“We really wanted to offer some key services to the community,” Cahoon said of the site. Included in those services are four major components:

  • A retail site/campus store. This is contained on the main floor. There is a full café, Apple sales and services – which has always been a big part for the need of the downtown site – plenty of WSU apparel plus other local merchants that make some good-looking Ogden products.
  • Start-Up Ogden. This has been a great success, Cahoon said. Members of Start-Up Ogden can apply for grants of up to $50,000 to make their businesses go and grow. Membership dues start at $50 and there are services offered to help young and growing business. “It can be any business, but it has to be a business, not just an idea to qualify for the grant,” Cahoon said. Grants are given once per quarter and the success behind the idea has been great, he said. Businesses are required to stay in Weber County for two years. There is also rentable space in the WSU Downtown offices for those start-ups to set up shop.
  • The Small Business Development Group is another booming part of WSU Downtown where small business owners can get together, network and bounce ideas off of each other. They can also use the rentable business space. Both of those components have a lot of access to the space (there are even showers) and the space can be used all hours of the day or night.
  • The fourth component is continuing education classes which are often taught on the third floor in classroom space. Cahoon says there are continuing education classes taught throughout Weber and Davis Counties, but that the WSU Downtown site is just another spot for those classes. They are quite popular though. Some are free and some cost. Cahoon said they really like to offer classes the community would like to see and things that are timely. “Family history is one we are really looking at because people are so interested in that right now,” Cahoon said.

Cahoon has worked WSU for 10 years and has managed the WSU Downtown site for all four years it has been open. He loves it. “I love seeing the new businesses grow. Our goal is for the businesses to grow and move out into the community. It has been the most fun part to see that happen,” Cahoon said.

He has been impressed with how busy the second and third floors are with the business space, conference rooms and meeting spaces. The space can be rented and used for other events – like the monthly Million Cups meeting, which is a meeting of budding businesses to work collaborate and get growth ideas. Cahoon said while it is not associated directly with WSU, events like that are popular in the space and people identify new business, education and growth with WSU, which is good.

And while all four components of the downtown site were always in the plan, they didn’t know how successful they would be – they have been very pleased with that success and also that they have been able to help new businesses grow in all directions – even if it’s through local apparel and products sold in the store. For more information on services visit the WSU Downtown website or Start-Up Ogden.